Apple’s localization documentation is sometimes lacking. This is especially true for localization topics like language codes. We’ve put together a very handy chart to answer a surprisingly difficult question: Which languages do iOS and the App Store support? It is actually a trick question. Apple supports a different list of language codes and regions on iOS than the iTunes App Store.
UPDATED: 2017. It seems this page about iOS Language Codes is still a hit, but the information has changed since we first published it in 2013. Should be good now!
The difference between the App Store language list and the iOS language list has some real-world consequences. For instance,  you can localize your iPhone app into Hindi, (language code: hi) but you will not be able to paste in the Hindi app description and keywords in iTunes Connect. Since this metadata is important for discovering your app, you may not be as inclined to localize your app into Hindi knowing this fact.
The other way around is also strange. Technically, since iOS 8, you can localize your app into ANY language by including the proper ISO language and region code. That means, technically, you could do Klingon if you wanted. However, Apple itself only localizes the system text into 40 languages, and the chance that your user has selected a language other than one of those is extremely small. In short:
iOS: Supports 40 languages and regional variants (Indian English is the most recent addition)
App Store: Supports 21Â languages and 7 additional regions of those languages
We always pass this information on to developers who contact us about localizing their apps into all the languages of the App Store. But we also think Apple should make this information a bit more plain to see. Here is the only page we found documenting it.
iOS Language Codes – The Missing Manual
At the request of the developers we work with, we’ve put together a Knowledge Base article with a complete chart. At a glance you’ll be able to see if the language you want is supported by either/both iOS and the App Store. We’ve also included those handy ISO-639 language codes you always ask us about. You’ll need those to create your en.lproj and other folders to store the localizations of your app in Xcode.
Not sure what a en.lproj folder is? Well check out our iPhone Localization Tutorial first! And we’ve got a tutorial for adding localized app descriptions and keywords too.
